The IRS’ Own Regulation is Successfully Used Against them in Two Willful FBAR Penalty Cases
By Anthony Diosdi IntroductionIn 1970, Congress enacted what has commonly become known as the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), as part of the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act. This was codified in Title 31 (“Money and Finance”) of the United States Code. The purpose of the BSA was to prevent money laundering by requiring the filing of reports and the retention of records where doing so would be helpful to the U.S. government in carrying out criminal, civil, tax, and regulatory investigations. One of the most important provisions of the BSA was Title 31 of the United States Code Section 5314(a) which provides in relevant part that: The Secretary of the Treasury (“Secretary”) shall require a resident or citizen of the United States or a person in, and doing business…